


Give Him Space

by enogk07



Series: Revised Tumblr Fanfics [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Breakup, M/M, grandparent death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 22:04:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14724401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enogk07/pseuds/enogk07
Summary: When you combine a sudden family death with a recent breakup, nobody has a good time.





	Give Him Space

"I realize this isn't the best timing. But I just wanted to make sure you knew as soon as possible and didn't have to find out indirectly."

"Yeah, of course. I understand. Thanks for letting me know."

"Alright. Call your mother as soon as you can, okay? I love you."

"Love you, too, Dad. Bye."

Patton hung up his phone quickly before his voice could betray him, and threw it onto his bed. He sunk down in his chair as tears streamed down his face. The room began spinning around him.

Nothing made any sense. Pop had been to the house only two weeks before during Christmas, and he was just fine! People didn't just...die like that, did they?

He took a deep breath and wiped his eyes, and moved to pick up his phone again. As frightened and heartbroken as he was, he needed support, and there was only one person who knew how to give it to him.

On instinct, he went to his messages and opened his chat history with Virgil. But as soon as he did, he felt another sharp pain to his chest as he remembered the other reason he was supposed to be upset--the reason he'd been crying before his dad even called him.

'Sure, I'll meet you at six?'

'Yeah, sounds good!'

A seemingly innocuous conversation, had the meeting in question not ended the way it did. But as it was, a simple comment during that seemingly normal dinner date became an argument, which turned into a fight, which turned into a discussion of every way they both had hurt each other in the past three years, which, inevitably, ended the night with a breakup.

No. No, no, no, no, no. This was too much. He couldn't handle both of these things at once. He started hyperventilating. With no grandfather and no support system, he was more alone than he'd ever been in his life.

But he still had friends...right? There had to be someone else he could talk to. He picked up his phone again and scrolled through his contacts, imagining how each conversation would go if he gave them the news.

Logan?

"I am sorry for your loss, Patton. Regardless, it is a necessary part of life. People's grandparents die all the time, and they still move on with their lives and manage to be productive members of society. There is no rational reason why you should be sitting in your room crying your eyes out like this."

Roman?

"Now Patton, try not to be so down. Your grandfather is in a better place now. No sense in sitting here crying, right? Come now, I'm sure if we find some excellent attire to wear for the funeral it will be sure to lift your spirits."

...Remy?

"Oh, buddy, it's okay. I've got nothing going on tonight, how about I meet you here at six and we'll head out to the bar. Oh yeah, and wear the sickest black clothing you've got. We are going to celebrate your grandfather's life in style, my boy!"

Oh, who was he kidding? Anybody he could think of to talk to would only say the same thing: stop being sad. He didn't need to actually have those conversations for that message to be clear.

Virgil probably wouldn't tell him that...but Virgil hated his guts.

Either way, it was clear to Patton that he wasn't going to benefit from reaching out to his friends. But maybe that wasn't so bad. There was a lot to do, after all--scheduling a flight home, emailing his professors to tell them he'd be out, probably writing a speech for the ceremony, too.

There was simply no time right now to grieve his relationship or his grandfather.

* * *

Later that same evening, Virgil was absent-mindedly scrolling through Facebook when he saw a post that hit him right in the gut. It was from Patton's brother Morgan.

"Rest in Peace, Pop. I miss you already."

The status had only been up for twenty minutes, but already six different people had commented offering their condolences.

Virgil's finger hovered over the "Add Comment" section. Should he say something? After all, Morgan hadn't done anything wrong. He was a good kid. He and Virgil had gotten pretty close during the last two years, in fact. ...Were they still allowed to be friends? For that matter, had it been sudden? He didn't even know that for sure. Maybe this had been going on a long time and Patton just hadn't said anything. Did its not being sudden change how he should respond?

He tried to come up with something to write, typing things out in the comments section and then deleting them before he could press send.

"RIP to your Pop. He seemed like a good guy when I met him."

No, no one wants to hear that. It just sounded trivializing.

"I'm sorry, man. Hope your family's doing okay."

That was better, but it was just avoiding what he really wanted to say. He sent a simple RIP and switched over to his own text history with Patton.

Again, he stared at the empty Add Message area and wondered what to do.

"Hey, I heard about your Pop. I'm really sorry. I hope you're doing okay--really. I don't hate you. I know I made it seem that way last week, but...I do care about you. I'm sorry things didn't work out between us, but nothing will change the fact that you matter to me."

He read it over ten times or so before copying it and sending it to Roman instead. "Hey..." he prefaced it. "Does this sound okay to send to Patton?"

Roman called him almost immediately. Shakily, Virgil took the call. "Hey...you got my message?"

"Yeah, I did."

"So...what do you think? Should I send it?"

Roman drew a long breath. "Okay, look. You know him better than I do; I can only advise you based on what you've told me. That being said, based on the account you gave of the fight from last week, I think that sending any message in the first place would do more harm than good."

Virgil's stomach dropped. He had expected Roman to offer advice on how to phrase the text better, not to tell him to send nothing altogether. "You think?" he asked weakly.

"I mean, look, all the stuff about how you don't really hate him? He doesn't need any of that right now. I get that it's something that you feel is important to tell him, and that's okay. And a few months or years down the line, yeah, maybe that's an okay time to have that conversation. But telling him that when it's only been a week and he's in the midst of a family tragedy? It's just not a good time, you know? Honestly, I would strongly recommend that you just give him space."

A lump formed in Virgil's throat. "I understand."

"I mean, it's your decision," Roman continued. "I'm just saying to put yourself in his shoes right now. You can send it if you think that's what's best, but you should ask yourself who you're really doing this for."

"Yeah," Virgil said, and hung up. He felt stung.

The phone rang again after a couple of moments. Virgil saw Roman's name and declined the call.

A text alert popped up moments later. 'You alright?'

Then a few minutes later: 'You can talk to me...if you want.'

And a few minutes after that: 'I didn't mean to make you feel like you couldn't.'

Virgil just stared at the screen and turned his phone off. He buried his face in his pillow. He hated that things didn't work out between them, and that Patton was probably going to spend his whole life thinking that Virgil hated him, and that he couldn't even reach out to Morgan, and that someone so special to him had to suffer like this in the first place. And he didn't want to talk to Roman about it.

He just wanted to cry.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Give Him Space (Redux)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15934211) by [enogk07](https://archiveofourown.org/users/enogk07/pseuds/enogk07)




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